


Reunion

by Kitsune_XIII



Series: SoRiku Week 2017 [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mentions of missing fingers, Unwarrented Anxiety, written while sick I'm sorry if the quality is crap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 03:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12312579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsune_XIII/pseuds/Kitsune_XIII
Summary: Summary: Riku travels home after three years away at war, is heckled by Tidus, and returns to his boyfriend.





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SoRiku Week 2017, of which I am one of the organizers. Information can be found on Tumblr by searching SoRikuWeek2017 and SoRiku.

The castle rose from the horizon like a beacon, and Riku nearly fell out of the saddle from the sheer relief of seeing it still standing. The walls stood, however cracked and blackened they might be, and the keep itself was as pristine as it had ever been. The keep hadn’t been breached.   
“Let’s not waste any time now!” the acting-commander called from somewhere ahead of Riku, and he snapped his attention to Cyan. “We have a long march ahead of us. If we don’t stop we should reach the castle by nightfall.” 

Murmurs rose up around Riku. Complaints about the lack of rest that day, excitement over finally getting home. Someone, Ramza he thought, mentioned something about resting the Chocobos at least, and Riku couldn’t help but wince as he remembered that they weren’t the ones walking. He squeezed his knees around his own chocobo’s sides and reached up to scritch her cheek. Silver feathers shifted under his hand, and his chocobo offered a soft ‘kweh’ of understanding before twisting around to nibble at the leather bracelet hiding his wrist, a question in her eyes.

“Aye,” he smiled, gently rubbing her beak with his thumb, “We’re going back. Think he’ll be waiting?”

Sympathy filled his bird’s eyes, and she offered another soft ‘kweh’. Riku grinned and leaned back, tapping her thighs with his heels to get moving with the rest of the squad. It had been a long, long time since they’d been to the castle last. Three years since this damn war started. Three years since he’d stepped foot in his home province. Three years of camaraderie and heartache and loss and blood and death. Three years of clinging to their last correspondence late at night, terrified that if it fell into any other hands their tryst would somehow be discovered in the messy loops of ‘Stay safe’ on a scrap of paper little bigger than Riku’s palm. 

 

The farmlands around the castle were a mess. Several fields ruined by the armies that had trampled over them seeking to take the castle. Scorches marred the barns and farm homes and near the castle Riku was certain he could spy the glint of ice that had not yet melted. Their chocobos squelched through the mud, clucking and chirping and kewhing at each other, their voices joining their riders’. Concern in their eyes as the looked at the damage.   
“How do you think they got past the perimeter, Commander?” someone called to Cyan. The man only sighed and shook his head.

Mages, obviously, Riku thought privately, and released the reigns to rub his bracelet. He knew his beloved was still alive, but what if he was hurt in the assault? Riku himself had hardly come out of the war unscathed, and the castle had been attacked even if not breached. And if he knew his beloved, he’d have been up on the battlements slinging magic right back at the attackers. What if he’d been struck? What if he was somehow wrong and his love was in fact dead?

A sudden clap against his shoulder nearly made him jump out of his skin, and he twisted to scowl at Tidus. His friend only grinned back.   
“You look so serious, Ri, thinking of someone special?” Because that was really anyone’s business but his own? He deepened his scowl at Tidus and picked up his reigns again, not missing the curious look that Tidus shot his bracelet. “You’re still wearing that? Why?”   
“It’s my token.” the answer came readily enough, and it as half true, though his love hadn’t given it to him. Tidus’s eyes lit up like diamonds though, and a grin split his handsome face. Goddamn he smiled like--   
Riku took a deep breath and shook his head even as Tidus flew into the next array of questions. “Sooooo what are they like?” he was almost crooning the word. Well, few people knew Riku’s lover… no harm in answering a few simple questions, right?   
“He’s warm. Bright. Like sunshine but… he won’t burn you if you stand in his glow for too long.”  three years of silence. He lifted his gaze to the castle, and wondered if his love had been able to keep quiet. He doubted it. He was as chatty as they came and Riku held his secrets close. “Never stops talking if he can help it.” Talking about his lover, being so close to seeing him again… it was nice… if he could just push down the nagging feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.

“Does he have a name?” Tidus smirked at him, and Riku rolled his eyes before reaching over to punch his friend’s shoulder. Tidus only laughed and steered his chocobo a few steps to the right to avoid the blow, veering back with more skill than Riku had been able to muster in a year.

“He does. I’m not going to tell you though.” it was a weak defense and honestly, he didn’t care. Suddenly the air felt heavy. He’d lost so much in this war. His brothers, his father, his fingers. Funny how little things could remind a person.   
“Is his name what you hide with that bracelet?” Tidus was still smirking.   
“Token.”

“You didn’t deny that you’re hiding his name with it.” Riku rolled his eyes at that. If only it were just his lover’s name under the band of leather. “Why hide it?”   
“I’m lowborn. He’s not.” Admitting even that felt too close, too personal, and he tapped Manaia’s thighs to urge her to push ahead. They were making good progress, the castle glowing under the dawn light.

“So?” Of course Tidus wouldn’t have to worry about it. “Yuna’s a priestess three countries over.” Yuna? Riku glanced at his friend’s wrist, and for the first time recognized the boxes and lines on Tidus’s exposed wrist as writing. He winced, he should’ve recognized the Name for what it was far sooner. So those marks meant ‘Yuna’?

“I don’t think you’ve mentioned ‘Yuna’ before…” At least Tidus had given him an easy way to deal with the personal questions. “Who is she?”

Thankfully that got Tidus talking, and the miles melted away behind them with Riku only half paying attention to his friend’s excited gushing about his girlfriend on the coast. Just enough to ask a new question when it seemed like Tidus’s attention was going to return to his bracelet and what might lay under it.   
  


The road stopped squelching under the hundreds of bird feet. As the sun reached its zenith they passed the ice Riku had spotted earlier--a massive crystalline feature that had overtaken a farmer’s home. Riku winced and looked away and Tidus fell silent for a full minute. At the end of that minute he wandered off and allowed the din of the battalion wrap around Riku once more. Farmland gave way to the town, and the battallion began to break ranks. Men and women alike broke into tears, their partners leaping from their birds into waiting arms. Riku chuckled and guided his sweet Manaia to Cyan’s heel.

They closer they drew to the towering castle gates though, the more Riku wondered if he shouldn’t wait. What if there were questions? What if He wasn’t there? Riku rubbed at his bracelet again and craned his neck back to scan the battlements.

If Cyan thought his behavior odd, the acting-commander didn’t say anything about it. Just a simple “You needn’t follow me to the castle, soldier” and that was that.

Riku didn’t bother to answer. His brothers were dead, he didn’t want to bring the news to his mother yet. No, he had to see his lover first. Even if he somehow put that off for a week. No. His beloved had waited long enough. He would have seen the army come in. If Riku didn’t go… well, his love would track him down. He always had. This would be no different. So he followed his acting-commander onto the castle grounds before dismounting from his precious chocobo with a fond pat to her side.

This close, he could feel the tug of their Names. Of his beloved slipping out one of the castle’s secret exits into the gardens. He checked once to ensure he wasn’t being watched and slid along the wall as quickly as he could. He had to be sure he was safe, had to be sure he wasn’t hurt, that his beloved mage-prince hadn’t gone and gotten his fingers frozen off like Riku had. He broke into a sprint halfway to the garden, heart thundering in his ears. Three years… Three years since they’d seen each other, but he could swear he could smell him on the breeze now. Hedges blocked his view, their vibrant flowers choking his senses, their dropped twigs snapped under his feet as he charged through the side passage. The tug was insistent now, his wrist almost burning. He raced into the garden, a world of flowers and fountains as peaceful as the day they’d left, as they day he’d stolen a kiss from those perfect lips.

And there was his prince, standing in the place Riku had left him those years ago. He grinned at him with all the light of the sun itself. Unruly brown spikes, longer than they’d been back then, framed his face, as unruly and unmanageable as ever, and Riku skidded to a stop just to drink in the view. His beloved, his Sora, entirely unharmed, standing in the twilight before the fountain and looking at him with pure warmth and love. He grinned right back, laughed at himself for ever doubting that Sora would be okay.

“Riku…” his love breathed, and stepped towards him, the finery he wore clinging to his supple form like a second skin, hardly wrinkling as the step turned into another, and then a full sprint before he leaped to throw himself into Riku’s waiting arms. Laughing, crying with relief.

“Sora.” he breathed, wrapping his arms around him and nuzzling into his hair.

“You’re here!”   
“I’m home.”

 

He wasn’t sure how long they lay in the grass and flowers, just clinging to each other and crying their reunion. He honestly wasn’t sure he cared. Sora fit perfectly in his arms--and he was never letting go again.


End file.
